"Help! Help!"
I turned around to the sound of a man screaming.
"You! Please do something!"
I looked at the man in the ground, begging and crying for help as blood flowed out of his leg violently.
Was it a trap? How can a man be bleeding out in the open like this? Shouldn't there be someone chasing him if he was being attacked?
I shook my head in disbelief and went back on my way. The man kept screaming for help as I walked away from him, but then, out of nowhere, he stopped.
Since his screams stopped so suddenly, my curiosity was piqued.
Just as I started to turn around to check on him, a laugh emerged from the spot where the man was, and in a split second, his head came rolling in my direction.
I watched in disgust as it approached me, leaving a trail of blood in its path.
"Goddamn! We have a strong recruit here!"
My attention diverted from the head to a mysterious person stepping on the dead man's body.
He was laughing awfully loud and, for some reason, he was wearing clown makeup. I quickly checked up on his outfit, hoping to see a big red nose or colorful clothes, but I got disappointed after seeing that it was just as average as mine.
"Come here, young man! We must return and prepare for the big show tonight!" he yelled while shaking off the blood in his katana.
I focused all my attention on his weapon, hoping to see the "big shine".
"What's up, young lad? You liked this big piece of junk?" he said while suddenly appearing on my back and showing me his katana up close.
I flinched and brought out Axie as the man came up to me. "Just how did you get back there?!" I asked as my heart tried to recompose from the scare.
"Liiiiike this!"
WHOOSH
He brought his hand close to my face and blew a weird powder on my eyes. I coughed as it entered my nostrils and my eyes, wiping away all of it with my face.
Just as I was able to see properly again, he had disappeared from my sight.
I don't know if he was weird or if that was some kind of weird tactic, but one thing was sure: I had to get ready for an attack.
I brought out Dom with my left hand and then made him switch places with Axie. I took a deep breath and started to concentrate on my surroundings, hoping to anticipate the direction of his attack.
"Uuuup hereeee, boooooooyyyy!" he yelled while standing on the verge of a house's rooftop.
My eyes looked at him in disbelief, thinking that this was all just part of a big joke. "Just… just how did you get up there?!" I shouted from underneath the house, hoping to get an answer for his weird behaviour.
The man gave me a playful stare and put his hand under his pants. I looked away, thinking that he was gonna do something gross, but when he yelled again, I watched him again.
"Liiiiiiike thissssss!" he screamed excited before throwing a smoke bomb in place.
POOF
My usually neutral face turned into an annoyed one. Just what the fuck was going on? I thought the end of the world was supposed dangerous, not whatever the fuck that shit was.
A sigh escaped my mouth as I thought of getting to the bottom of that situation.
I approached the headless body that was lying in front of me and touched it with my feet. "Was this all just an act? Is this a mannequin? Or is it like one of those weird AI animatronics?" I thought to myself as my shoe touched the corpse's back.
I inspected him carefully, quickly realizing that if it was fake, then the creator must've done a good job recreating human skin.
At the end, there was only one way to actually confirm whether it was real or not: Checking for wires.
The corpse had 3 major and deep wounds. One in the leg, one in the back and one where his head was supposed to be.
I crouched to ground heights, my eyes locking on his wounds to see what he actually was.
"Hehe, I know what you're thinking. But let me tell you something: It is actually a real body."
I quickly swung Axie behind me, hoping to get the person whose voice it belonged to.
The man at my back quickly dodged my weapon and bumped me with his ass (Yes, I'm being dead serious). "Boop" he playfully said as I fell back from his "attack".
I recomposed quickly after meeting with the floor, lifting my head while trying to get a glimpse of the person who whispered into my ear before.
"Why so serious, my boy?" he laughed softly behind me.
I flinched again, my heart skipping a beat one more time due to his sudden appearance. I'm serious right now, how the fuck was he doing that?
"Come onnnn… Get up! Don't overreact, I didn't even hit you hard!" he said while patting my back.
I moved him away, telling him to fuck off while I used Dom as support to get back up. Once I was completely back on my feet, I put my traveling partners back on their spot and held the strange man's arm.
"Aww… Sorry buddy, I like women." he told me while faking a blush. "Don't get any weird ideas, I just want to know how you're doing it." I said, annoyed by his behaviour.
He started to play dumb, so I loosened up my grip on his arm in hopes that he would give me answers to thank me for my "kind act".
The man kept playing dumb for a while, but everything ended when he tried to put his other hand inside his pants again.
I rushed to hold his other hand, and in response he just kissed my forehead. His gesture threw me off, causing me to let go of his arms.
With a swift motion, he put his hand under his pants and threw a smoke bomb again, yelling "Like this!" with enthusiasm before completely disappearing from my sight.
I coughed intensely, moving the smoke off of my face with my left hand. "Come on, man! Please don't do this again!" I shouted.
I looked from left to right, trying to find him again. But then, out of nowhere, a voice appeared behind me saying "Looking for me?" before laughing.
My body was about to turn around quickly, preparing to hit him with a spinning elbow. However…
POW
I heard a blow coming from behind me, and in a few seconds everything turned blurry. "Were you looking for me?" the man said as he appeared in front of me with a wide smile, waving his hand at me as I started to lose consciousness.
I don't know how much time I was out, all I know is that when I woke up, I was on his back. "Put me down…" I grunted weakly as my eyes slowly opened up.
The stranger with clown makeup turned his head around, and while giving me a big smile, he dropped my body on the ground.
I groaned quickly as I fell on top of Dom, curling up on the grass beneath me as I rubbed both my back and my axe.
"We were here anyways, so I wasn't intending to carry you any further." he said while placing Axie beside me.
My mind was still spinning from whatever happened before, so instead of acting aggressively because he was holding my companion, I just nodded and with a smile I thanked him.
"No problem, young man" he replied while offering his hand to help me up.
My body stood up languidly, somehow gathering the strength to keep me in my place. The stranger patted my back strongly and said "Good job!" while putting my right arm over his shoulder.
We started to walk forward, and my head looked at the ground all the way.
After walking for a couple of minutes, the sun stopped hitting me, so I lifted up my head to see what was causing that giant shadow that I was stepping on.
"Where are we?" I asked, astonished by what was in front of me.
An enormous and really colorful tent was standing in front of us, and it was both amazing and weird.
The reason for this? Easy, you wouldn't expect something this big to stay around after The Fall, wouldn't you?
The man looked at my reaction to the tent and changed his voice to that of a ringmaster. He then rushed to get in front of me and changed his voice, saying that it should be "fittable for a ringmaster".
The stranger gave me a wide smile and raised his arms, pointing at the big tent behind him and shouted "Welcome to my circus! I am Johnny, the ringmaster, and I'm very pleased that you will join us!".
He bent down, giving me his hand in invitation, and I just stood there, staring at him in disbelief. A circus? An invitation to join him? What was going on?
Johnny looked at my reaction and stood up, holding both of my hands and telling me "Before you ask me why you should join us, let me tell you something: I have seen how those weapons of yours shine under the sunlight, and that's why I think that you might find something of your liking in my circus…!".